"This highly effective guide is designed to help attorneys differentiate expert testimony that is scientifically well-established from authoritative pronouncements that are mainly speculative. Building on the foundation of Jay Ziskin's classic work, this updated text blends the best of previous editions with discussion of positive scientific advances in the field to provide practical guidance for experts and lawyers alike. Major contributors in the field summarize the state of the literature in numerous key areas of the behavioral sciences and law. Working from these foundations, the text provides extensive guidance, tips, and strategies for improving the quality of legal evaluations and testimony, appraising the trustworthiness of experts' opinions, and as follows, bolstering or challenging conclusions in a compelling manner. Distinctive features of this text include detailed coverage of admissibility and Daubert challenges, with unique chapters written by an eminently qualified judge and attorney; hundreds of helpful suggestions covering such topics as forensic evaluations, discovery, and the conduct of depositions and cross-examinations; and two chapters on the use of visuals to enhance communication and persuasiveness, including a unique chapter with over 125 model visuals for cases in psychology and law. More than ever, the sixth edition is an invaluable teaching tool and resource, making it a 'must have' for mental health professionals and attorneys"--

"Why did the defendant do it?" Mental health professionals are asked to help courts answer this question. To serve justice, the law calls for evidence of the mental state at the time a crime is committed, of suicide intent in civil litigation, and of mental capacity in contract litigation. The law asks psychiatrists and psychologists to retrospectively determine mental states -- a daunting task made even more difficult by the passage of time, the uncertain credibility of witnesses, the paucity of collateral sources of information, and often the death of the person in question. This is the first book dedicated entirely to the retrospective assessment of mental states. This fascinating book explores the role of the psychiatrist and psychologist, as an expert witness in litigation, in rendering a retrospective judgment of an individual's mental state. Distinguished contributors apply their expertise in psychiatry, psychology, and the law to address the problems of retrospective assessment. With the goal of developing guidelines for more accurate retrospective assessment of mental states, they present topics such as Guidelines for conducting retrospective assessments in children and adults Guidelines for the retrospective assessment without benefit of direct examination Assessments of suicide cases in both civil and criminal litigation Psychological testing and interviewing techniques that may assist in retrospective assessment Methods and analysis to help clinicians and attorneys critically evaluate the search for "truth" about the past. This remarkable book will prove indispensable for helping clinicians, lawyers, and judges better understand the complex and difficult process of retrospective reconstruction of mental states.

Psychologists are under increasing pressure to demonstrate the ecological validity of their assessment procedures--to show that the recommendations concluding their evaluations are relevant to urgent concerns in the legal and social policy arenas, such as predicting dangerousness, awarding compensation, and choosing a custodial parent. How much damage does a referred patient have? Who or what "caused" the damage? What impact will it have on his or her future life, work, and family? And what can be done to remediate the damage? The purpose of this book is to provide sound objective methods for answering these questions. It integrates the knowledge of experienced practitioners who offer state-of-the-art summaries of the best current approaches to evaluating difficult cases with that of basic theorists who describe emerging methods in both predictive and inferential statistics, such as Bayesian networks, that have proven their value in other scientific fields. Arguably, the enterprise of psychological assessment is so interdependent with that of data analysis that attempts to make inferences without consideration of statistical implications is malpractice. Prediction in Forensic and Neuropsychology: Sound Statistical Practices clarifies the process of hypothesis testing and helps to push the clinical interpretation of psychological data into the 21st century. It constitutes a vital resource for all the stakeholders in the assessment process--practitioners, researchers, attorneys, and policymakers.

The legal aspects of child mental health have changed in recent years, yet many who deal professionally with disturbed children are ill informed about the rights and responsibilities of minors. Child Mental Health and the Law addresses the need for a comprehensive, up-to-date text that describes the evolution of child mental health law and the relevance of the law to the child mental health clinician.

Impulsivity features prominently in contemporary descriptions of many psychiatric disorders, and is also a key element in the clinical risk assessment of violence. Thoroughly examining the nature, assessment, and treatment of impulsive conduct, this up-to-date volume brings together contributions from prominent researchers and clinicians in both mental health and correctional settings. Chapters illuminate our current understanding of impulsive behavior from conceptual, legal, and biological perspectives, and address the challenges of describing and measuring it. With special emphasis on how the likelihood of future violent or destructive behavior can best be gauged in specific cases, the volume includes several newly developed risk assessment tools. Impulsivity also provides an invaluable overview of the current state of the research and delineates a broad, clinically pertinent agenda for future study. Impulsivity is an invaluable resource for clinicians working in private practice, correctional facilities, health care settings, and community-based programs. It also serves as a primary or supplementary text for advanced undergraduate and graduate-level courses.

The past two decades have seen a rapidly growing involvement of psychologists and psychiatrists in legal proceedings for criminal cases, divorces, and traffic and industrial accidents. Mental health professionals are traditionally not trained to cope with the legal responsibilities that arise from their routine clinical work and are eager to learn the professional skills that are needed in forensic settings. There is presently no book which focuses entirely on the strategies and verbal tactics employed by attorneys who critically examine and challenge the testimony of mental health professionals. If psychologists and psychiatrists can familiarize themselves with the kind of questions and verbal exchanges that take place in the courtroom, they would be better prepared to provide their expertise in an effective manner. This book fills that need. Designed as a practical handbook to assist practitioners from all mental health disciplines, it focuses on typical courtroom dialogue between attorneys and mental health professionals who testify regarding their psychotherapy clients and also those who are hired by attorneys specifically to provide expert opinions. The authors, who have extensive experience in the courtroom, offer well-thought-out, effective responses as contrasted with impulsive and weak answers to attorneys' queries. Actual cases are employed to illustrate typical challenges in various legal areas, including criminal law, child custody hearings, and personal injury cases. Certain forensic issues such as the scientific bases of expert opinions, the accuracy of psychological vs. medical tests, and malingering, are emphasized throughout the chapters. The book is based on the belief that exposure to courtroom dialogue enhances the awareness of appropriate professional responses to an attorney's cross-examination and greatly alleviates fear toward a situation well-known to provoke intense levels of anxiety. Although it is written alluding to the forensic psychologist or psychiatrist, the strategies for the witness are readily applicable in most instances to all mental health professionals. Issues such as therapist bias, unconfirmed observations, and cultural and ethnic factors are clearly relevant to all who provide mental health services.